Greg Holmes said he felt a range of emotions when he saw one of his campaign highway signs covered in hateful vandalism on Friday.
“It wasn’t just a damaged sign,” Holmes said. “It was a level of violence and vandalism that I hadn’t seen in the county.”
Holmes is running for Prince George’s County Executive. He was notified by Bowie City Police that the large sign located at Maryland Route 450 near Superior Lane was vandalized the morning of May 1.
“I don’t want anybody to have to feel the way my family and I have felt over the last couple days, because you feel like something’s being taken away from you, and that’s your freedom,” he said.
Investigators said the vandal used blue painter’s tape to place a swastika over Holmes’ face and wrote the words “FREEMAN” and “TND,” which are coded white supremacist terms.
Holmes said he believes the vandalism took time, suggesting whoever did it was deliberate.
“No other signs were damaged with that on it,” he said. “Did I just get singled out? Am I being targeted?”
In a video posted on social media, Bowie Mayor Michael Estève said the city will not tolerate prejudice directed toward anyone.
“Someone tried to deface this sign. They put some painters tape on it with a message that was racist and antisemitic,” he said. “You commit vandalism, we’re going to make sure we do everything we can to find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
Holmes said one positive outcome has been how many people have reached out, offering to replace the sign or asking to put a sign up in their yard.
“People have been incredible,” Holmes said. “It’s not so much support for me; it’s really talking about (how) we don’t want this in our county, and we don’t want people to feel like it’s OK to do this in our county.”
“The message is not to be desensitized by what goes on. Be really outraged. Be pissed off,” he added. “It’s unacceptable. Somebody saw something, someone should say something.”
No arrests have been made.
The Prince George’s County Homeland Security Department is leading the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.
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